Ways to better listening
Recently we came across a blog by Riitta Raesmaa, an exceptional Finish startup entrepreneur. One of her excellent blog entries was all about good listening and its important role for business life. We all know from our daily experiences, how important it is not to talk all the time, but to listen to what others have to say. We may learn a thing or two :-)
Riita introduced Julian Treasure to us. Julian's surname perfectly describes what he represents for the world of sound - Julian is an expert for sound and listening. Watch and listen to what he has to say about ways to better listening.
Enjoy!
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
What's wrong with this Chinese character?
Kathryn Schulz is a prolific author, journalist and a very entertaining public speaker. Her current favorite themes are Wrongness and Regret. As a "Wrongologist" Kathy reminds us that we should not try to be faultless all the time, but embrace being wrong as a way to gain insight into better ways how to lead our working and private lives. She's even written a book about "Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error"
Just right at the beginning of the silly season, watch this insightful TED video with Kathryn Schulz, in which a "Chinese character" plays a funny role.
Many thanks Kathryn for allowing us to share your great TED speech with the readers of our Blog!
Enjoy!
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
Challenges and outlook for Australian business applications in the cloud
Recently, Computerworld Australia, the face of Australian IT, published a range of videos regarding the "Australian Cloud", presented by prominent Australian IT identities.
In this blog post we present two selected videos, which we believe are worthwhile to be watched by business people interested in "Software as a Service" (SaaS) and the future of Cloud computing in Australia. Enjoy!
First video: Provides an overview of SaaS, the application side of Cloud computing, and its importance for Australian businesses.
Second video: Challenges and outlook Cloud computing is facing in Australia.
Disclaimer: RSDataWeb is a SaaS application for Australian accounting and advice businesses, developed and hosted in Australia.
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
Using Ensemble to integrate disparate application systems
We have been InterSystems partners for a number of years and tremendously enjoy the reliability, powerful features and excellent support of its software products for developers, most notably the Caché object data base and developing environment, as well as Ensemble, its powerful integration platform.
With this post we make the readers of our blog aware of the unique capabilities Ensemble holds for integrating disparate systems. While Ensemble is known for being heavily deployed in the medical space, we use it successfully for building composite applications in the Cloud for other industries, such as Financial Services and Accounting.
Enjoy both videos:
First video: Paul Grabscheidt from InterSystems Corp explains why Ensemble is the better Integration platform for composite applications:
Second video: Joe de Santis from InterSystems Corp demonstrates key features of Ensemble for building composite applications:
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
Financial Planners look to lower costs, lift efficiency using Cloud computing
The Australian Financial Review published a very interesting article in their print edition today. Among other industry pundits, this leading Australian business daily interviewed Wolf Schumacher, the Director of RewardSuper.
Read what Wolf and other experts had to say about Cloud Computing as used by the Australian Financial Planning profession:
- Cloud computing leads to a whole pile of servers in offices becoming redundant.
- The industry wants an online service that will allow planners to outsource administration tasks such as data entry,
- Security issues are of concern to some firms.
- Planners want better integration of professional software with investment platforms.
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
SMSF administration in the Cloud - A RSDataWeb case study
Our recent article about "Accountants moving into the Cloud to administer SMSFs", yielded an excellent response by some large and mid-sized Accounting firms with SMSF clients.
Most of these firms are well aware of the benefits that Cloud computing can offer and are keen to start moving into the direction. The automation of investment and cash transactions is an excellent area to start, as it allows to integrate with a large number of external data providers.
RSDataWeb is a web-based data automation & integration platform, that integrates a wide range of electronic financial data feeds into streams of real-time and historic data helping to eliminate the tedious tasks of client data preparation in most accounting offices. RSDataWeb is not an afterthought by otherwise non-web oriented software vendors, but a powerful scalable web solution that saves Accounting and Advice firms real staff time and money.
As a case in point, we’ve put together a case study of an Australian Accounting firm, which automated its data preparation with the help of RSDataWeb.
Enjoy the introductory video!
View and download the presentation slides shown in the video here.
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
Innovation through technology
The Business Information Systems (BIS) Division of the renowned Business School at the University of Sydney looked at the increasingly important role technology plays for innovation of our organisations and society.
Its research revealed that technology indeed fundamentally changes our world!
Consequently the BIS department produced this insightful video with prominent and influential contributors from Australian industry, government and academia.
Enjoy!
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
Chi-X throws down the gauntlet to the ASX
Today was the first day of share trading at Chi-X Australia, the new competitor to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), competing from inside Australia.
In this video, the interviewer asks Peter Fowler, Chief Executive of Chi-X Australia, which is owned by the Japanese Nomura Corp., some very interesting questions, eg about data feed availabilities and the relevance of the new exchange for the Australian economy. His answers leave room for speculation, but the idea of some competition in this traditionally monopolistic market appears refreshing.
RSDataWeb will make Chi-X trading data available for our clients at the same speed as the stockbrokers flock to the new stock exchange; currently there appear to be 22 stock brokers actively trading on Chi-X Australia.
Enjoy the video!
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
Coming up - The innovation event of the year
Creative Innovation 2011 will be hosting numerous celebrities from the International Innovation and Creativity space, including thinkers such as Raymond Kurzweil, Dr Edward de Bono and Aussie innovation leaders such as Deloitte Digital's Peter Williams.
The author of this short post, Wolf Schumacher, remembers fondly a 'Lateral Thinking' training course with Dr de Bono, which he attended in the early nineties on a beautiful private island, owned by Dr de Bono, near Venice, Italy. Edward is a very humble man and an excellent Innovation & Creativity thinker, who has influenced generations of creative innovators.
The video below from CI 2010 is the closest to experiencing Edward de Bono yourself.
Meet Edward de Bono and the fantastic line-up of world-renowned thinkers and practitioners at the CI 2011 in Melbourne from 16 to 18 November:
Dr Edward de Bono, global authority on creative and conceptual thinking presentation at CI2010 from CreativeUniverse on Vimeo.
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
Remember Steve Jobs' great presentations?
Steve Jobs' recent passing shocked many if not most people in the technology and business world.
The power of the Internet makes it possible for Steve to live on through his unique and memorable presentation style and for the rest of us to learn from Steve and improve on our own presentation styles.
Enjoy the video!
Posted by Wolf Schumacher
